Asia Bibi

Aasiya Noreen (1971-), better known as Asia Bibi, was a Pakistani Catholic woman who was sentenced to death in 2010 for blasphemy, having been accused of insulting Muhammad in an argument with Muslim women over her right to have the same water as them.

Biography
Aasiya Noreen was born in 1971 in Ittan Wali, Sheikhupura District, Punjab, Pakistan to a family of Catholic Punjabis. She worked as a farmhand to support her family, as Christians in Pakistan were usually forced to work lower-class jobs; she refused to convert to Islam as other farmhands suggested. In 2009, she got into an argument with other farmhands after sipping water from the same cup as Muslim women, who considered her unclean due to being a Christian. During the argument about her religion, she asked the Muslim women, "I believe in my religion and in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind. What did your Prophet Mohammed ever do to save mankind?" This constituted blasphemy under Zia-ul-Haq's Islamist constitution, so she was arrested after being beaten up by a mob. In 2010, she was sentenced to death for blasphemy, and politicians who supported her release such as Shahbaz Bhatti and Salman Taseer were murdered as a result. Many world figures, including Pope Benedict XVI, petitioned for her release from unjust imprisonment.